This book provides a framework to help students understand the relationship between media and society and to develop skills for critically evaluating both conventional wisdom and their own assumptions about the social role of the media. The Fifth Edition retains its basic sociological framwork, but also includes additional discussions of new studies and up-to-date material about a rapidly changing media landscape. It significantly expands on discussions of the new media world, including digitization, the Internet, and the spread of mobile media devices, and the role of user-generated content, the potential social impact of new media on society, and new media's effect on traditional media outlets.